The ㅎ Irregular: 그렇다 → 그래요, 그런 | Korean Grammar

The ㅎ (히읗) irregular is the class behind some of the most-used words in the entire language — 그래요 ("that's right / me too"), 어때요? ("how is it?"), 그런 ("that kind of"). It affects a specific, closed set of adjectives whose stem ends in ㅎ, and it does something no other class does: it not only deletes the ㅎ but also reshapes the following vowel into ㅐ. Learn the four demonstrative adjectives here and you will have covered the overwhelming majority of the times this pattern surfaces in real speech.

One boundary up front: this rule is for adjectives. Verbs ending in ㅎ (넣다, 놓다, 낳다) are perfectly regular — those, plus the color adjectives where this class runs wild, get their own companion page.

Two changes triggered by one letter

A ㅎ-irregular adjective behaves in two environments:

Before an 아/어 ending (the polite -아/어요, past -았/었-, etc.): the ㅎ drops, and the leftover stem vowel fuses with the ending's vowel into ㅐ. 그렇다 → 그래(요).
Before an 으-ending (-(으)면, -(으)니까, attributive -(으)ㄴ): the ㅎ drops, and the 으 disappears too. 그렇다 → 그러면, 그런.

Everywhere else — before a plain consonant ending like -고, -지, -게, -다 — the ㅎ does not drop at all (more on that below). So the fireworks happen in exactly the two environments above.

저도 그래요.

jeodo geuraeyo

Same here. / I feel the same way. (그렇다 → 그래요)

왜 그래요? 무슨 일 있어요?

wae geuraeyo museun il isseoyo

What's wrong? Is something the matter? (그렇다 → 그래요)

그러면 내일 다시 봐요.

geureomyeon naeil dasi bwayo

In that case, see you again tomorrow. (그렇다 → 그러면, ㅎ and 으 both gone)

Before 아/어: the vowel always lands on ㅐ

Here is the fact that saves the most grief. When the ㅎ deletes before an 아/어 ending, the result is ㅐ almost regardless of what the original stem vowel was. 그렇다 has stem vowel ㅓ, yet the output is 그래 — not the ×그러 you would expect if the vowel simply survived. The deletion of ㅎ triggers a fixed fusion to ㅐ:

Dictionary form	Meaning	-아/어요	Attributive -(으)ㄴ
그렇다	be so / like that	그래요	그런
이렇다	be like this	이래요	이런
저렇다	be like that (over there)	저래요	저런
어떻다	be how / what-like	어때요	어떤

The single systematic exception to "always ㅐ" is the color adjective 하얗다 ("be white"), whose ㅑ stem vowel fuses to ㅒ: 하얘요, 하얀. Everything else you meet in daily life lands on ㅐ. (The colors are covered in full on the companion page.)

요즘 날씨가 어때요?

yojeum nalssiga eottaeyo

How's the weather these days? (어떻다 → 어때요)

이렇게 하면 돼요.

ireoke hamyeon dwaeyo

You can do it like this. (이렇다-based adverb 이렇게)

저래 봬도 마음은 정말 따뜻해요.

jeorae bwaedo maeumeun jeongmal ttatteutaeyo

He may come across that way, but he's really warm-hearted. (저렇다 → 저래)

Before 으-endings: the 으 vanishes too

When an 으-ending attaches, the ㅎ drops and the buffer 으 has nothing to buffer, so it disappears. The most frequent products are the attributive -(으)ㄴ (그런, 이런, 저런, 어떤) and the conditional -(으)면 (그러면, 어떠면 is rare but 그러면 is everywhere). The attributive here is -ㄴ, never ×-은 — so 그런, not ×그렇은.

그런 사람인 줄은 정말 몰랐어요.

geureon saramin jureun jeongmal mollasseoyo

I really had no idea he was that kind of person. (그렇다 → 그런)

저는 이런 분위기가 좋아요.

jeoneun ireon bunwigiga joayo

I like this kind of atmosphere. (이렇다 → 이런)

어떤 색으로 할까요?

eotteon saegeuro halkkayo

Which color shall we go with? (어떻다 → 어떤)

These attributives, together with the demonstratives 이런/그런/저런 as a lexical set, are treated more fully under 이런·그런·저런; the point here is that they are derived from ㅎ-irregular adjectives by exactly the rule above.

Before a plain consonant, the ㅎ just aspirates

This is the piece most explanations skip, and it prevents a lot of confusion. The ㅎ-drop only fires before 아/어 and 으. Before an ordinary consonant ending — -고, -지, -게, -다 — the ㅎ stays in the spelling and behaves like any ㅎ batchim: it aspirates the following consonant. So the dictionary form is 그렇다, pronounced [그러타], and the adverb is 그렇게, pronounced [그러케]:

Form	Spelled	Pronounced	RR
dictionary	그렇다	[그러타]	geureota
and (-고)	그렇고	[그러코]	geureoko
-지	그렇지	[그러치]	geureochi
-게 (adverb)	그렇게	[그러케]	geureoke

그렇게 말하면 안 돼요.

geureoke malhamyeon an dwaeyo

You shouldn't say it like that. (그렇게, ㅎ aspirates the ㄱ)

맞아요, 그렇죠.

majayo geureocho

Right, that's how it is. (그렇죠 [그러초], ㅎ aspirates)

💡

The ㅎ only disappears before 아/어 and 으. Before -고/-지/-게/-다 it stays put and quietly aspirates the next consonant: 그렇게 [그러케], 그렇지 [그러치]. So the "irregular" behavior lives in just two environments; the rest is ordinary ㅎ pronunciation.

Reframing for English speakers

An English speaker's instinct is to keep every letter of a stem intact and just add an ending — which produces the two most common ㅎ errors at once: ×그렇어요 (kept the ㅎ) and ×그러요 (dropped the ㅎ but kept the wrong vowel). Neither is Korean. The mental model that works is: ㅎ-deletion in these adjectives is not a subtraction, it's a fusion — it collapses the stem-final syllable and the ending into a single ㅐ syllable. 그렇 + 어요 does not become 그러 + 어요; it becomes 그래요, a genuinely new shape. Treat 그래 / 그런 / 그렇게 as three faces of one word, and you stop trying to reassemble the ㅎ where it doesn't belong.

💡

The output vowel is ㅐ no matter the stem vowel: 그렇→그래, 이렇→이래, 저렇→저래, 어떻→어때, 파랗→파래. The one you must flag is 하얗→하얘 (ㅒ). Memorize the ㅐ default and the single ㅒ exception, and the whole class is yours.

Common Mistakes

1. Keeping the ㅎ before a vowel ending. The ㅎ must drop and fuse.

❌ 왜 그렇어요?

Wrong — the ㅎ drops and fuses to ㅐ → 그래요, never ×그렇어요.

✅ 왜 그래요?

wae geuraeyo

What's wrong?

2. Dropping the ㅎ but keeping the stem vowel. The fusion forces ㅐ; ㅓ does not survive.

❌ 저도 그러요.

Wrong — the leftover fuses to ㅐ, not ㅓ → 그래요.

✅ 저도 그래요.

jeodo geuraeyo

Same here.

3. Inserting 으 before -면 (or the attributive). After ㅎ-deletion the 으 has no reason to appear.

❌ 그렇으면 저도 갈게요.

Wrong — ㅎ and 으 both drop → 그러면.

✅ 그러면 저도 갈게요.

geureomyeon jeodo galgeyo

In that case, I'll go too.

4. Forming the attributive with -은. It is -ㄴ with the ㅎ gone, never -은.

❌ 저는 그렇은 사람이 싫어요.

Wrong — the attributive is 그런, never ×그렇은.

✅ 저는 그런 사람이 싫어요.

jeoneun geureon sarami sireoyo

I don't like that kind of person.

Key Takeaways

The ㅎ irregular affects adjectives ending in ㅎ; ㅎ-final verbs (넣다, 놓다) are regular.
Before 아/어: ㅎ drops and the leftover fuses to ㅐ — 그렇다 → 그래요, 어떻다 → 어때요. (하얗다 → 하얘요, the lone ㅒ.)
Before an 으-ending: ㅎ drops and 으 disappears — attributive 그런/이런/저런/어떤, conditional 그러면.
Before -고/-지/-게/-다 the ㅎ stays and just aspirates the next consonant: 그렇게 [그러케].
The four demonstrative adjectives 이렇다·그렇다·저렇다·어떻다 are the highest-frequency members — anchor here.
Fossilized errors to kill: ×그렇어요, ×그러요, ×그렇으면, ×그렇은.

Now practice Korean

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Korean→